Dara Torres may be known around the world for her age-defying exploits in the pool, but for the longest time that didn’t prompt a serious deep dive by her only child. It wasn’t until daughter Tessa reached a pivotal moment in any youngster’s life that things changed.
“When Tessa got her first phone, she started looking me up on Google,” says the 12-time Olympic medalist. “She liked finding [the photos] that we were in together. Later, maybe her first year of high school, I think she did a project on me. That’s when she really had to learn more about Mom.”
Of course, not every story about her mother’s historic swimming feats required a search engine. Tessa, now a junior at St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, knew that she was part of the push that sent Mom into the water again in search of Olympic medals in her 40s. Dara was so nauseous during the early part of her pregnancy that she started swimming laps, thinking that it might ease her discomfort.
It did more than that.
Only a few months after delivering her daughter, Dara competed at the 2006 Masters World Championships. Minutes after nursing Tessa, she swam fast enough in the first leg of the 50-meter freestyle relay to qualify for the Olympic trials. Two years later, Dara not only made her fifth U.S. Olympic team, but she captured three silver medals at the Summer Games at Beijing—at age 41.
Fifteen years later, the stories that Tessa knows by heart and the stories she found online continue to resonate with women all over the world. The reason why speaks to the title of Dara’s 2010 bestselling book—and to the acronym connected to an upcoming motivational retreat for women that she’s planning. Age is just a number.
The thread of empowerment and motherhood is prominent throughout the May issue of Lifestyle. You’ll see it in our feature on Kanwal Bawa, the former emergency room physician (and mom to twin boys) who is taking a medical approach to changing lives in the bedroom—and enjoying international podcast fame along the way as Dr. Sex Fairy. You’ll also see it in our story about Jesmille Darbouze (mother of two), who, after paying her acting dues for more than 15 years, is having a hard-won moment on Broadway in a show that runs through early June starring an Oscar-winning actress.
Enjoy the issue. And Happy Mother’s Day to moms across South Florida.
